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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Maribel Torres, a seasoned real estate agent and investor with over 20 years of experience. Maribel shares her journey from Wall Street to real estate, her strategies for success, and the importance of building relationships in the industry. She emphasizes the need for agents to invest in themselves and make decisions that align with their personal goals. The conversation highlights the challenges faced in real estate and the significance of community and networking in achieving success.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Maribel Torres (00:00)
It’sa great moneymaker. Real estate to me is like your retirement. You know, if you don’t have real estate, you’ll be working for the rest of your life. ⁓ basically my saying is ⁓ work. Don’t work for the money. Let the money work for you. So I’m sitting back and I’ve got landlords paying my mortgage. I have tenants paying. I’m a landlord. I’ve got tenants paying my mortgage.
Quentin (00:08)
⁓ Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And you guys know I’m gonna say. I’m excited to be here today. I have another amazing guest that’s coming on. Listen, she’s an agent, but also she’s an investor. Listen, she has seen probably every aspect of economy. You’re not gonna surprise her. She’s prepared for whatever comes her way. ⁓ She has the added bonus of being in a comm- ⁓
my goodness. And so, you know, I love to laugh. you’re probably going to hear my little chick muck squeaky voice comes out if she makes me laugh too hard. And so I am really happy to introduce you to Ms. Maribel Torres. Ms. Maribel, how you doing today?
Maribel Torres (02:47)
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, it’s good to be here.Quentin (02:50)
Absolutely, how you feeling?It’s good to be here, good. It’s good to have you. I stand by me, my excitement. You definitely have a unique lens that I want people to peek through. And so I’m gonna be honest with you. I wanna dive in. want you to kind of take us into your world. Tell us what your main focus is these days. If you wanna give us a little bit of an origin story, we love origin stories.
And also tell us like what markets you’re operating in. So take us into your world. Tell us all things Murabal Taurus.
Maribel Torres (03:24)
All right, so I actually got my license in Florida about 21 years ago. And I recently started going back to New York because I was born and raised in New York. I got my bachelor’s degree there and I worked on Wall Street. And then 9-11 got laid off and moved to Florida. So during that whole time, I…just decided, let me just get my real estate license. It’s a great industry. It’s the economy was booming at the time. And I love homes, architectural design. I love people. So it’s definitely a great ⁓ job for those people who are love real estate. So ⁓ I love the industry. And what do I do? I recently got licensed in New York as well. ⁓ And my family’s there.
And so I have stepped into a whole new world of real estate there and the need for people leaving and entering to New York and New York City. And I ended up just ⁓ also entering into the comedy world when I was flying on an airplane. I met an actor, his name was ⁓ Richie Minervini. He’s just, I owe him the world to laughter. ⁓
of laughter introducing me to this new world and networking through all comedians that go all over the states. Looking now on the next 20 years and the next life here for my future, my goal is to have
agents from all over the states reach out to me from when they need to sell a work with the, work with
eight ⁓ other relocation ⁓ customers. So the relocation customers, you can refer them to me and I work with you. give a high percentage, 30 % ⁓ on listings. I’m sorry, 30 % on buyers and about 50 % on listings. I will work the whole transaction flight to the person’s home in their state and work with an agent.
in wherever that city, wherever that ⁓ customer is. And then I’ll fly back and you will take over from there, but I will be on calls monitoring the transaction. And so ⁓ that’s how I want to work it. That’s my goal. So New York and Florida are my main spots,
Quentin (06:42)
Yeah. Ooh. ⁓Maribel Torres (06:49)
looking to work with other agents in other states.Quentin (06:52)
Absolutely. I love it. I love it. You’re building. I love the fact your license in Florida and New York. You have your eyes on the prize. You want to build, you know, this, team of agents. Um, you listen, you talking about giving 30 % to the buyers, 50 % to the sellers. I think I those numbers right. Like you have your eyes on the prize. And so I want to ask you, it’s not always easy in this climate. So what are some of the strategies you have?to kind of keep you running smoothly and to keep things going the way towards the goal that you’re going towards.
Maribel Torres (07:29)
So some of my strategies right now are just to continue to go to networking events and that you can join. I look on ⁓ the Google ⁓ networking events near me and I go to women’s networking events. I go to the Martini Network in Florida. ⁓ There’s all kinds of events that you can attend just to network, hand out cards, get to know people, be seen.you know, get referrals from one another, from your state to my state to, you know, ⁓ to just building your sphere of influence. And it’s so great to have that because it’s the only way to succeed. People need people. So we all need each other to move ahead to get you to the next level. So ⁓ I need my social media. ⁓ You need your
media. We need to be friends on social media.
in order to see what we do so that we can refer each other, work with each other and make money. Because that’s what we’re here to do, make money. know, so, yeah.
Quentin (08:34)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.Now we’re definitely going come back to relationships. We’re going to talk about that a little bit more, but you’re absolutely right. We need a community. know, always one of my mottoes is that you heal in community. make financially sound decisions in community. Like you need people around you that’s going to help you and motivate you to go to the next level. And so when you talk about you need people, you’re absolutely right.
And like I said, we’ll come back to that. We’ll talk a little bit more about relationships later, but I do want to ask you this. know, you’ve been in the game 20 years as an agent. You, like you said, you’ve seen every aspect of economy. So, you know, there are times when things get real, when deals go sideways, times when you have to pivot fast. And so I was wondering, Ms. Maribel, if you could maybe share a story. And I’ll tell you why, because everybody talks about the success. Not enough people talk about the journey to success.
And so I think part of the journey to success is when we have to come up against opposition. And so are there times when you were trying to do a deal when you had to put the fast and things going sideways?
Maribel Torres (09:43)
⁓ Yes, there’s ⁓ obstacles sometimes on customers that might come to you and you know, there’s not there and you might get really turned off and be like, I don’t want to do real estate anymore. Well, I will give you a situation where I had a customerabout a few years ago and she was needed to get divorced. She came and she says, I need to buy a house. And I said, well, what’s going on? She gave me a whole history of ⁓
her mortgage, what she has is for income to qualify to purchase a home. And she told me, oh, I only make $22,000 a year. It’s a lot of money, right? And she goes, I can afford a house, right? And I said, well, yeah, okay. So you kind of stay positive and say, yeah, 22,000 is not, you’re good, you’re good. And then just keep asking her questions like, do you have any income from child support? Cause she was divorced once before.
or life insurance or anywhere or, you know, ⁓ just social security or anything like that. And she didn’t, but I sent her home. She was, she got divorced. She was in the process of getting a second divorce here and she was beaten and she said, I got to get out. My husband is just, you know, she was a battered woman. And next thing you know is,
I Listen, go back, tell your boss what you’re trying to do. Get yourself an increase. Tell your boss that you need to make at least $40,000 to please help you out so that you can buy your house and get out of your situation. Two years later, my phone’s ringing. Hey, I’m ready. I have a $40,000 salary. It took two years, but she worked hard on it. And amen. So it’s all about keeping positive attitude.
Quentin (12:12)
Yeah.Maribel Torres (12:16)
and strategize, don’t get disappointed, stay motivated, ⁓ motivated with your customers and make sure you say positive things to don’t say, you don’t qualify, okay, bye. Look for a way how they can come back. And that’s this way in two years, you still have a whole network of people that you’ve reached out to that didn’t qualify and you guide them in the right direction to how to get to the position they need to get. And then move on to the next customer.Quentin (12:43)
Mm.Maribel Torres (12:45)
You know? Yeah.Quentin (12:45)
Mm. Yeah. See, kudos for you ⁓ for being somebody that’s going to problem solve, right? You didn’t just cast her to the wayside. She wasn’t just another number for you. You’ve seen her as a person. You’ve seen her as somebody that wants something. OK, if she wants it, how can we find a way for you to get it? And you made that suggestion. And I mean, look at that. I mean, you really impacted that woman’s life. You probably needreally changed the trajectory of where she was going. And for me, that’s somebody that’s, what you just displayed showed me the difference from people that just dabble to people that’s in it for the long term. And so kudos to you for being a problem solver and really serving the client and helping them find a way to establish their goal. I appreciate that and I admire that about you. I really do. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Maribel Torres (13:37)
Yeah.Thank you. So yeah, we still stay
friends. ⁓ She’s invited me over to barbecues and you become like a family and that’s what you want because now there she’s telling all her sisters, brothers, cousins, family, friends, her job, ⁓ everybody about me. And so that’s why you want to build that relationship, whether it takes two years, three years, one year, six months, whatever it is.
Quentin (13:43)
Yep.Yeah. Yup.
Yeah. Yeah.
Maribel Torres (14:07)
Keep that relationship, build, make them your family. You’re trying to put them into a home, into shelter, or become an investor. know, her house, I sold her a house for 300,000, brand new construction, four bedroom. It’s now worth $650,000. And she’s asking me, what do I do? I’m ready to buy my next house. You know, should I rent this one out? Yeah, do it. Let’s go, you know, so.Quentin (14:24)
Come on. Yeah.Yes!
Yeah, yeah.
Maribel Torres (14:35)
We’reworking now on building the second one, getting a second one and ⁓ using a tenant on this one because she has no mortgage on it now. So, and her divorce was successful and he didn’t think he could, she could move on, but anybody could move on. You know, you have God and have faith, you’re good.
Quentin (14:38)
Yeah, yeah.Yeah, And kudos. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Come
on, absolutely. And listen, if you’re watching this, kudos to you lady, because I can tell her mindset is always going to be one of a growth mindset.
She said, listen, I got $22,000 a year. That’s a lot of money, right? What we can do with it. And now she got a home, bought it for $300,000. That was at $700,000. Now she’s don’t even, knew it, but another investment property. Like she is the sign of a person with a growth mindset. So if you’re watching this, kudos to you. Sky is the limit.
Maybe I’ll have him on the show one day. Kudos to her. But listen, I heard you mentioned your goal and I want to circle back around to it because you said your goal, want to build agents, agents that’s all around the nation. And so I just want to come back to that. Is there more to the goal? Did you kind of want to expand on that? Like what’s the next real goal for you?
Maribel Torres (16:08)
Yeah.⁓ I would like to actually have a small home because I am a single person. I do life by myself and ⁓ my goal for the next years is to buy my own investment properties. Agents tend to forget about themselves. We’re selling people houses, we’re doing selling, know, the people are making money off of us ⁓ and we’re making money, you know, by selling a little commission.
Quentin (16:39)
Yeah.Maribel Torres (17:00)
My friend is now, you know, has a $300,000 equity in her home. And we tend to forget about ourselves and not buy anything for ourselves. We’re agents. We need to have a few homes, one house, two house, three houses too. So, and that’s where you’re going to make your real money is when you invest in yourself and your own home. So my goal is to have another home in New York, a small one, and just a two bedroom and⁓ have another small home in Florida. So I’m building my, my, ⁓ investments. I have my assets and my portfolio. So I like to purchase a home in a small one in Florida. Cause right now I am staying at an Airbnb in Florida because both of my, my homes are leased out. So you can’t forget about yourself, you know, so I, if I can buy another.
little small home to just, want to be that bird that just lands in a tree in different states. That’s great, you know? So, Yeah.
Quentin (18:03)
Yeah, yep, nope, understood. Andthat’s a great message for other agents, like you said, y’all tend to, you know, put other people in their dream homes, help people with their portfolios. But like you said, sometimes you forget about yourself and you you gotta put the, I know you probably heard it before, you know, the airline stewardess, steward person, I guess, when they’re giving you things on an airplane to do in times of emergencies.
They say if the mask should happen to drop, make sure you put your mask on first before you try to help somebody else. And so the message that you just said is that as agents, cannot forget to breathe yourself, to put something on you so you can breathe, so you can have life, so you can have a future and not just help everybody else. And so I feel like that’s a very powerful message to get out there for agents for sure.
Maribel Torres (18:57)
That’s a perfect analogy. So they say put on your mask first before you even put on your child’s mask. Because if you can’t help you, you won’t be able to help your child. So you need to be prepared and ready to go ⁓ before you can help the consumer or the baby or whoever it is. It’s a great analogy. Yes, for sure.Quentin (19:09)
Yep. Yeah.Absolutely.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. So now I appreciate you.
So, so listen, I told you we would circle back around some relationships. And so I love how, you know, you helped your friend and now she’s in a better position. I love how you talk about building a team of people. And like you said, you got high percentages that you’re giving to them so that it can make it worth their while. And so when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
Maribel Torres (19:50)
⁓ Being seen and heard is just the greatest thing. And just when people come to you and it’s such a great feeling. It’s a love, know, we all have different types of love. We could love our parents a certain way. Hey mom, love you, your husband, or I don’t have one, but if you ever say, hey, I love you to your husband or your child or your baby or your dog or whoever it is, ⁓ you know, it’s always, ⁓It comes back to you twofold. But I forgot the question. I’m sorry. was I was? Oh, yeah.
Quentin (20:26)
It was about relationships and the way you build relationships. yeah,you’re spot on what you’re talking about, but yeah, was about how do you build, how has relationships impacted your life pretty much? Yeah.
Maribel Torres (20:36)
Yeah. so just people needing people and it’s you just got to love real estate, love people, love. Then this is the industry for you and invest in you because many times too, if we’re in a relationship, ⁓ it holds you back from doing or moving forward with buying an investment home or making that decision to move forward. It’s ⁓ so the key is here not led to.anybody influence your decisions. You can listen to everybody’s opinion. Yeah, don’t move here, don’t move there or whatever. But at the end of the night, come home, manifest and do what feels right for you. You you know where your financials are. You know, don’t let the husband, spouse, mother, brother or, you know, even the wife sometimes a little controlling. ⁓ Whatever feels good, move forward with it.
You know, if it feels right in your heart, you don’t have to ask your husband, hey, should we do this? You know, get his opinion. But at the end of the day, pull the trigger, either you or your wife, whoever’s the, you know, whoever, ⁓ make that, who’s the decision maker. Nobody is a decision maker for anybody. Make your decision and pull triggers. And then, you know, go from there because ⁓ even if you do have a spouse or a wife or a husband, ⁓
that is, you you always have to consult with or a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I want to buy a house with my boyfriend. You know, do it yourself. Do it. You know, whether they come into it. All right, great. ⁓ But make that pull that trigger because I’ve been held back for so many years of wanting to have multiple houses, wanted to have ⁓ be a landlord.
Quentin (22:07)
Yeah.Maribel Torres (22:30)
And I couldn’t do it until I got divorced, unfortunately. And now I do everything. I’m like a free bird out of a cage. And it’s all about making that right decision for yourself. know, when you make those decisions for yourself, yeah, you listen to everyone, but definitely take the, you know, ⁓ do what feels right. You know, and not, you can be influenced by pull triggers on if it feels good, do it. It’s,Quentin (22:34)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maribel Torres (22:59)
It’sa great moneymaker. Real estate to me is like your retirement. You know, if you don’t have real estate, you’ll be working for the rest of your life. ⁓ basically my saying is ⁓ work. Don’t work for the money. Let the money work for you. So I’m sitting back and I’ve got landlords paying my mortgage. I have tenants paying. I’m a landlord. I’ve got tenants paying my mortgage. So it’s ⁓
Quentin (23:08)
⁓ Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maribel Torres (23:29)
And that’s, need to let the money work for you.You don’t want to work for the money all, you know, like your life.
Quentin (23:32)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah, I love it. Listen, drop the mic moment. I absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about your comedy, like, how do people get in contact with you?
Maribel Torres (23:54)
So I am on Instagram. My handle is at Maribel for Real Estate. ⁓ That’s it, just Maribel. And the number four Real Estate is my Instagram account. My Facebook account is Maribel Torres, T-O-R-R-E-S, Maribel Torres. And you’ll have the right, there’s a lot of Maribel Torres’ out there.when you do the search, I do have on my back wall a picture of myself with my mic and a red shirt. So you can’t miss me. So you’ll go through all the Maribel Torres is, but there’s only one that’s a comedian and also a real estate agent nationwide through remix. Yeah.
Quentin (24:34)
Absolutely. Let’s go.Let’s go. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for coming through. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your bright personality. I really, really appreciate you. We definitely need people like you within this space. And so it was an honor just having you on. And so I appreciate you so much, Ms. Maribel.
Maribel Torres (24:38)
Yeah.Thank you so much, Quentin. You’re the best. Great questions. I loved it. Yeah.
Quentin (24:58)
I appreciate that. Hey, I appreciate that. Well, listen, y’allheard it. Y’all, Maribel Torres, look her up, connect with her. And right after you do that, or even before, make sure you subscribe here, right? We want to make sure that you come back and continue to get this content from just these amazing people that we bring on. And so, Ms. Maribel, just want to thank you again and listen to everyone else. We will see you on the next time.
